Dagger's Point

Chapter Twenty

By the time Bea shows up I am a mess. I need to tell her everything about Dagger, show him to her as evidence. And all of this without alerting my father or encountering anyone. It's bound to get a bit hairy, but at least Bea is willing to commit a crime. When I see her my heart skips a beat, and not in the way it does around Conan, instead it is the anxiety tearing me to shreds.

"Hey, throw your stuff on my bed, and then let's get out of here. I have something to show you," I can feel the strain in my tone, and wince at it.

"I swear if it's a video of you and Conan getting frisky I will gladly post it all over the internet as payback."

"We're not doing anything. And we aren't going to."

I can feel myself blushing as Bea steps back into view, walking towards me with her eyebrows up and a stern expression on her face.

"What did you two angel's have a fight?"

"It's not important, just follow me."

I don't want to talk about it. In reality nothing happened, but at the same time, what did happen is enough for me. If we clash that much over such simple things, is there even a chance that we can get together? Not that we were going to in the first place. My thoughts consume me as we parade the back way to the stud barn, and I can't help but hear the small noise Bea makes when it comes into view. I know that it's pretty, but at the same time I half expect her to have the same reaction as Conan. I don't want that to happen, but at the same time I steel myself, ready for something to happen to ruin our friendship.

"What are you going to show me?" she peers into the barn, looking skeptical.

"Do you remember Dagger's Point?"

"The legend? Yeah. Why?"

"He's in there. Our plan is to steal him."

As the words come out of my mouth I realize how stupid it sounds, and I wince, it sounds childish, like I'm going to go take someone's ball during recess. Instead we're going to be kidnapping a devil horse that doesn't exist, how charming.

"You're shitting me."

Instead of replying I walk inside, ignoring the shadows that leer at me from inside the stalls. Focusing on Dagger's, something that has become so familiar now. I wait for him to do something, a noise of any variety, but there is nothing. My heart beats a bit faster fearing the worst as I look into the stall.

It's much worse than I can imagine.

He's gone.

"He's gone." I mumble, reaching for the latch to slide the door open, staring dumbly at the empty space.

There's no way, how did it happen so soon? We're too late.

I can feel the hope crumbling, the excitement that just maybe this would work out. Out of every situation I have conjured up in my mind, none of them involves him gone. I don't know what to do. Is there even a way to find a horse that's gone missing, if it doesn't exist in the first place?

"Where is he?"

"He was just here not that long ago. I...I don't know where he went."

But I do. My heart knows exactly where he is, hanging out with Award and Mom. At least, they hopefully did it humanely, if anything they owe him that.

"What do you mean? You weren't just pulling a prank on me right?"

She sounds offended, but there is nothing that I can do about it, my legs and arms feeling numb. There is no way that it happened so quickly, it's impossible.

"No. Conan and I, we were just here. I can't believe they took him away so soon."

"What do you mean took him away? Ollie what are you talking about?"

I start from the beginning, telling her everything, my heart aching more with each word. This wasn't how it was supposed to end for him. There should be more to the story than this, there is no way that it came about like this.

"Come on. Let's go back to the house." Bea's hand is gentle on my shoulder as we walk back the way we had come, her mumbling things to me that I don't hear.

I just can't believe it. The one time I go forth to actually do something and take a stand, I don't succede. I'm not going to cry, but for a horse that doesn't exist I can feel the mark he has left on me. It stings, and twists through my veins. If only I hadn't waited so long.

"I called Conan and told him everything. He's coming over."

Bea's words are just a jumble in my mind as I stare at the wall, my mind still racing, image's of Dagger parading through. I feel sick and numb at the same time, a clammy chill engulfing my body. I haven't felt this way in a long time, not since Mom, but I can feel the weight of it all sitting firmly on my chest, making breathing difficult.

Soon enough Conan shows up and Bea hurries me into his truck, I think they're afraid of me, at what they see. But I can't bring myself to care, I wasted the rest of that on Dagger, and look where it got me. The truck ride is awkward to say the least, Conan throwing glances at us through the rear view mirror, while he wrestles with the steering wheel, hunching over it with white knuckles. I want to ask him about it, having forgotten to earlier in the day. Out of anything in the world to be afraid of driving is a valid reason, though I don't see it that way.

Soon enough we end up at a familiar looking restaurant. The dingy place that Bea took me to the first time I met her. I can feel the smile there, ready to push across my lips at the memory but it doesn't, pulling my lips down into a more firm frown instead. There is no way that eating here will help me, but I don't want to object so I follow them inside.

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THE END!!!!

Alright not really, but there isn't that much left to go!